© Provided by The Philippine Star
LEGAZPI CITY – Malacañang has approved the release of P300 million in additional funds for residents who have extended their stay in evacuation centers amidst the delayed eruption of restive Mayon Volcano.
Cedric Daep, chief of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (Apsemo), told a media briefing here yesterday that some 54,000 food packs out of 250,000 packs requested would start arriving in Albay on Sunday through a convoy of 54 vehicles dubbed as the Zero Casualty and Good Governance Caravan.
Daep said that the relief goods would last for 90 days and include rice, canned goods, health and sanitary kits and other things needed by the close to 13,000 families now housed in at least 40 evacuation centers in Albay.
He said that some P30 million has been allotted for 327 sets of portable toilets/baths to be handled by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Bicol, while P42 million would be used for the maintenance expenses of Apsemo operations.
“With this development, the evacuees are assured of their needs for at least 90 days,” Daep told The STAR, adding that they would immediately submit a certification of depletion to the concerned government agencies once their supplies are already consumed by the evacuees who are now on their 25th day in the evacuation centers.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) recorded yesterday five rock fall events and emission of an estimated 387 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2).
Phivolcs geologist Winchelle Sevilla said that Mayon’s surface inflation is consistently going up at a very fast pace.
Sevilla said this indicates that magma buildup or gas pressurization is very active inside the volcano.
“Rock fall events that our seismograph are detecting last for more than 30 seconds each, indicating that even big rocks are now falling from the upper slope of Mayon,” Sevilla said.
He admitted that should the surface inflation continue as manifested in their ground deformation precise leveling survey and the crater remains clogged, a big eruption is very likely to happen.
He also said that the continuing pressure buildup of Mayon without sufficient release of gas is another new abnormal behavior that Mayon is showing. - msn.com
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